We're are gearing up to pull out our Christmas decorations (probably tomorrow), so I'm very excited that I finished this set of paper ornaments just in time. We really need new decorations for our tree but I decided that we are going to make and not buy them. I can't wait for us to get around the kitchen table to put these together.

Two of them should be familiar to you if you were around last year. I never placed them in the shop because what I really wanted to do was to create a collection. I finally had time to work on it this year.

I decided to go with a combination of shapes. The house, mod icicle and globe are very geometric and are made up of the outlines of shapes. The lantern, drop and cube have either irregular or curvilinear shapes that give them a different feel. I think they all go well together—right?

These may be called ornaments but they would work perfectly for gift decorations or for table settings. I like them as is (you know me and white!) but I can see small pieces of color added like I did for last year's calendar.

I'm selling the ornaments as SVG, DXF and PDF files. They are available in my A Little Hut shop.

I don't think I'll be back until next week... so to my friends here in the States—Happy Thanksgiving!Have a great week everyone!

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I ordered a Silhouette Cameo! I keep staring at it in delight. I really wanted to get a new updated machine. I haven't used it yet but rest assured that I'll let you know what I think about it when I do. I'm going to have a lot of paper fun in the next few days!

My parents went to Spain and Paris a couple of months ago (lucky them!). When they were in the Palais Garnier opera house gift shop they saw these lamps and took photos because they knew I'd love them. They were right!

I've been trying for weeks to find out who the artist is and even called the gift shop in Paris to find out. I called and my Mom called a couple of times (yes, we're determined women). The man that we talked to acted like we were asking for a state secret. In any case, I finally found the information I needed today. I wanted to give credit where credit is so very due.

Papier à êtres — So, today's link is the artists' web site. The work is incredible! Take a few moments to visit. Trust me it will be worth it.

Aside from the obvious (the Just Bits on the right side of this post)...

- I have a table of goodies at Poppytalk Handmade. I haven't sold anything that needs to be put in the mail in so long. It's fun to send goodies out vs. sending an email for a change. Visit my table and see the work of other great artists here.

- Saturday night was the school fundraiser and silent auction. My contribution to the decoration of the evening was inspired by this. My version was nowhere as beautiful. The painting that I made with little C's third grade class sold for $580—not too bad for someone that doesn't feel very confident about paint.

- I'm designing a very cool logo that has more illustration work to go along with it. It's a really interesting project.

- I'm very excited that I'll be teaching a class at the Altitude Summit! Sign ups for my class opened today. I hope to see some of you there. It's going be great to see so many online familiar faces.

- Rain. It's raining a little more frequently (about once every couple of weeks). It's seems unreal that I'm so grateful about that. But in typical Texas fashion when I say rain I really mean severe downpour. Texas weather can be best described as a feast or famine situation.

Paper will always have the number one spot when it comes to working by hand. But recently I've become increasingly interested in stretching the materials boundary—and thread is calling my name. It's time to expand.

This is a little experiment/study that I cooked up recently. In my head I'm already about 5 steps past this. The trick is to find the time to work on it some more. I want it to be a composition that is ten times bigger and in a custom-made shadow box. Hmmm...

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Nobody ever died of discomfort, yet living in the name of comfort has killed more ideas, more opportunities, more actions, and more growth than everything else combined. Comfort kills!

Well hello there! I had no idea I'd be gone for a couple of weeks. I've been so wrapped in projects here and there that I simply didn't have the time to put together anything decent to blog about. I think I may have also reached one of those "need to take a break moments"—it happens.

So... what have I been up to?- Still working on my book proposal (rethinking some projects-but almost done!)- Working on some projects for local clients- Designing new patterns and projects for my shop- Visiting with great friends at Houston Quilt Market. Some photo evidence via Dianehere. It's always so much fun to get together with such driven and talented women.- I went to paint a collaborative/fun raising project with my little C's 3rd grade class. A lot of fun!- And basically just going on with our crazy life...

I've regrouped and today I start off with some limited edition goodies at Poppytalk Handmade. The collection includes assorted paper cutouts (for framing, scrapbooking or coaster making) and new graphic fairy tale art work. If you see something that you'd prefer in a different color just send me an email and maybe we can work something out.

This is a limited edition collection because I am actually making and putting these items in the mail to whoever orders them (I haven't done that in a while). I will only be doing this during the month of November.

For those of you that work with cutting machines you can take a look at the paper cutouts there to get some inspiration on what other things you can make with my Christmas Paper Quilt and Falling Leaves collections. I will be putting the digital files to the new items (like the Graphic Arches Tags) in my shop in the next couple of days.

Be sure to check out the other artists at Poppytalk Handmade. There are beautiful things that can help you get your holiday shopping started!